burton--1001-nights--sample

Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport * Sweets from
brocaded trays and kickshaws most elaborate.
Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; * To-day he
seems dark-lowering and to-morrow fair to sight.
Then I rose and seated myself at a respectful distance while the King
read what I had written, and marvelled, exclaiming, “O the miracle,
that an ape should be gifted with this graceful style and this power of
penmanship! By Allah, ’tis a wonder of wonders!” Presently they set
before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he drank: then he
passed on the cup to me; and I kissed the ground and drank and wrote
on it: —
With fire they boilèd me to loose my tongue, 56 * And pain and patience
gave for fellowship:
Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high * And honey-dew from
lips of maid I sip!
And these also: —
Morn saith to Night, “withdraw and let me shine;” * So drain we
draughts that dull all pain and pine:
I doubt, so fine the glass, the wine so clear, * If ’tis the wine in glass
or glass in wine.
The King read my verse and said with a sigh, “Were these gifts in a
man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!” Then he called
for the chess-board, and said, “Say, wilt thou play with me?”; and I
with shredded meat, spices and condiments. The “bangles” is a pretty girl eating
with him.
56
This is the vinum coctum, the boiled wine, still a favourite in Southern Italy and
Greece.
183